Squatters in Bath…and a Few Takes On the U.K. Housing Crisis.

Since post-World War II, the city of Bath—now a World Heritage site—has suffered from a lack of housing. To tackle the problem after the war, portions of the area were cleared and redeveloped. The more modern architecture was “…often at variance with the local Georgian style,” we read in Wikipedia.

 Nevertheless, “[i]n the 1950s[,] the nearby villages of Combe Down, Twerton and Weston were incorporated…to enable the development of further housing, much of it council housing.”

 Now Bath has become notable for another housing issue. Last month, the BBD reported that squatters had taken over an empty shop in Bath.

 “The former Jane Norman store in Union Street has been covered with advertising posters by the group, which is selling handbags and accessories,” we read in BBC News in Somerset.

The landlord of the former women’s fashion retailer isn’t taking it lying down; they’re pursuing legal action to evict the squatters.

What is of particular concern to a retail property specialist in the area is that these occupants: “…pay no rates[;] they pay no rent, they pay no VAT, they pay no National Insurance.”

A spokesperson for Squash (Squatters Action for Secure Homes) has a different outlook on it. Joseph Blake believes that, when squatters commandeer one of the 725,000 empty properties in the U.K. like this, they “do them up”, turning them into functional property again—buildings that might conceivably give back to the community.

But what’s wrong is wrong, Blake stresses. “I wouldn’t back squatters going in and taking something that the owner’s got a use for.”

George Monbiot, a well-known Guardian columnist, took on the analysis of the housing crunch. He believes there is a supply- and-demand problem. “Households are forming at roughly twice the rate at which new homes are being built,” he wrote.

Also—and this, Monbiot claims, is a well-guarded societal secret—a contributing factor is that homes in England are “under-occupied”. That is to say, the wealthy live in houses with spare rooms—rooms which he believes should be allotted a housing footprint, similar to the ecologically-minded carbon footprint.

 “Your housing footprint is the number of bedrooms divided by the number of people in the household….” he states. “…[I]t reminds us that the resource is finite, and that if some people take more than they need, others are left with less…”

 There are dissenting voices. “…[T]he real opportunities for better use of housing lie in using empty buildings[,] not spare rooms,” says the author of the “Unlocking The Potential of Empty Homes” blog.

David (no listed last name), the blogger and CE of the charity, Empty Homes, continues: “…across the UK there are close to a million empty homes, and enough abandoned commercial buildings that could be readily converted into half a million new dwellings.”

 David believes there is no housing shortage and that new houses aren’t the solution, partly because the market’s in a slump. “House builders aren’t building,” he notes, “because few people are buying.”

“[New houses are] judged by the market to be too expensive, and by lenders to be too risky.” David notes. (This, he explains, is due to overpricing.)

 So what’s the solution?

Since prices aren’t likely to drop, he explains, “the state [will likely] construct new ways for people to afford [overpriced] homes…while tak[ing] the risk of the inevitable house price drop away from lenders.”

And the good news is that, if and when house building accelerates, it would most likely create an oversupply of houses…which would, in turn, result in lowered prices… and in much-needed affordable housing.

 -David  Slade

Photo courtesy of BBC News – Somerset

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , , ,